


Pillow Talk: Coming Clean

by unspoken_and_wild



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Pillow Talk, post-sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-29 05:42:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3884587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unspoken_and_wild/pseuds/unspoken_and_wild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Killian finally fesses up to Emma that he let her win their sword fight at Lake Nostos.  Turns out there was a lot the pirate wasn't telling her back then.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pillow Talk: Coming Clean

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the question from tumblr, "Do you think that Killian and Emma will bring up their sword fight and Killian finally reveals that he let her win? Because I can not buy that Killian, who is a pirate around 200 years old really lost to Emma after she has barely even used a sword before."

They were still trying to catch their breath. Emma was lying on Killian’s shoulder, delicately running her hand over his chest, fingertips dancing in his chest hair. Killian had his hand behind his head and his left arm around Emma’s back holding her close in the afterglow.

Emma is playing back all the events in her head that lead up to this moment. She thinks about the beanstalk, the first time she saw him so artfully use his hand and mouth in unison to bandage her wound, and how she was not surprised at all that he was so good at what he just did… Then her mind drifts to the next time she saw him, escaped from his restraints and standing in between her and getting home. She remembered her rage, her determination to defeat him, now reveling in how someone she saw as an adversary was the person she felt closest to in the entire world.

Then it hits her. How _had_ she bested him? Now that she knew him so well, his past, witnessed his skill in a fight, it didn't add up. How had she, a modern woman trained in pistol combat, defeated a 300 year old, military-trained pirate at sword fighting?

“Can I ask you something?” Emma looks up at Killian when she can finally speak.

“Of course, love. Anything.” Killian replies, looking down at her adoringly. 

“Do you remember Lake Nostos? Back when you were working with Cora?“ She felt a little sheepish reminding him of his darkness, but she felt confident based on recent events that it was behind him enough to ask about. Besides, he did say she could ask him anything.

"Aye. For as many times as I apologize, it will never be enough for betraying you.” He tightens his lips as well as his grasp on her, holding her close.

“I know, that’s not what I meant. When we were fighting, you had me dead to rights with your cutlass. I had never fought with a sword before, so I just went at it on instinct. You, on the other hand, you’ve had many a swashbuckling encounter.” Emma smiled, bringing some levity to the topic. She secretly loved using pirate lingo to get a rise out of her captain. “You’ve had lots of training and experience with a sword, and I was able to get you down with a knockout punch.” She paused. “You _let_ me win.”

Killian chuckled and smirked. That look. The one that he gives her when she turns the tables on him and reads him like an open book.

“There were opportunities, yes. But I couldn’t bear the thought of harming you. Using my blade to mar that flawless flesh,” He brought his hand around her and caressed her side from shoulder to hip, “would be very bad form indeed.”

 _Captain innuendo returns_ , she thought to herself as she chuckled.

“You have captivated my mind since the top of that beanstalk. You struck me in such a way that I have never felt before. But when you left me shackled there, untrusting,” He paused. It was Emma’s turn to tighten her face in shame, “When you said you couldn’t take a chance that you were wrong about me, I resigned to the fact that you had made up your mind and that my villainous reputation weighed heavier in your mind than your own observations. I steeled my commitment to my vengeance. I was so unused to recognizing hope that I foolishly believed I was done with you.” His mind flashed to the image of Emma’s shocked, wide eyes through the bars of Rumplestiltskin’s cell. 

“So when Cora and I were standing there at the edge of the portal, and I looked up to see who shot that arrow that displaced the compass, my heart leapt into my throat when I saw your face among those standing between me and my goal. I had to make a choice.” He was tracing his hand up and down her side, as if keeping contact with her would keep him grounded, anchored, as he relived his darker days.

“It would have been easy enough to dispatch you, but I knew that you would stop at nothing, were you still able. There’s a fire in you, Swan, one that continues to amaze me, and even then I saw it. Fool would I be to stand between you and your goal, especially getting home to your son. So I did what I had to, keeping you occupied with my sword, maintaining a safe distance, but when you came at me,” He smiled, thinking even in the heat of battle, the vision of Emma Swan running towards him would always have an effect on him. “I could only act on the defensive, just to belay your efforts so the compass could be retrieved. I had you on your back, and I would be lying to you if I told you it didn’t give me a glimmer of satisfaction.” He pulled her close and chuckled low in this throat, as she replied in kind. They both immediately flashed to the most recent time Killian had Emma on her back, only moments ago.

“When I reached for the satchel to retrieve Aurora’s heart, I meant what I said. I was hoping you would see that despite your villainous perception of me, I couldn’t bear a person’s heart to be lost. Especially a woman’s.”

“Unless it was over you,” Emma interjected, assuring him that she remembered his words distinctly. She said this with a softness that conveyed undeniably that it was her heart that had been lost to him. Given over freely, more like.

“So to convince you of my good form, you’ll recall you had time to reclaim your sword. I debated taking the time to retrieve it myself, but what sort of fair fight would that have been? I did admire your form. You have good instincts with a sword, Swan. With a little practice…” Killian’s mind drifted for a moment about practicing sword fighting with her in the woods, marveling at this force of a woman, only needing a bit of honing and training to be a imposing adversary with a sword. He imagined the sweat dripping down her neck, following the curve of her breast, her chest heaving with elevated breathing. Possibly getting her on her back again, and the ensuing activities that would distract from their exercises. But immediately this fantasy was quashed at the thought of when she may ever need to put those skills into practice. Killian snapped back, balking at the thought of Emma in harm’s way, at the hand of any one of the likes of foes that posed a threat to Storybrooke these days.

“So, as any dashing rapscallion would do, I thought my only way of keeping you out of harm’s way while occupying your complete attention would be to captivate your focus with my devilish good looks, possibly distracting you with the thought of more enjoyable activities from the vantage point of lying on your back.” She did love that vantage point, looking up at him, he descending upon her like he was going to devour her.

“That’s why I advised you to quit. If you conceded, we could discuss our mutual goals. We both wanted to go to Storybrooke, and I knew you wouldn’t suffer anyone to prevent you from getting back to your boy. We had already proven we make quite the team, and I was hoping you would recognize how aligned our objectives really were.” There were a lot of things that Emma wished she recognized in Hook a lot sooner. “So when you disengaged me with a kick that I won’t soon forget, by the way,” he chuckled, rubbing his sternum in feigned soreness, “I was left with no choice but to resume my parrying.”

“And then I punched you in the face,” Emma chortled, almost mocking her unsophisticated but undeniably effective tactic.

“Another impact I will not soon forget, although the unconsciousness that followed leaves me somewhat fuzzy on the details.” Emma smiled. She relished the fact that her pirate boyfriend was impressed by her combat skills. “When I arose to find you gone, I was secretly relieved. You had succeeded, not that I had any doubts you wouldn’t. I was still determined to follow through with my plan to exact my revenge, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t delighted that to do so meant following you through that portal.”

“And here I am, thinking that I bested the most fearsome pirate the world has ever known, only to find out he was just toying with me to get me to like him,” Emma teased.

“You certainly had the unfair advantage of knowing me before we met, or at least thinking you did. But there were no stories or tales of Emma Swan in the realm I grew up in, so when we met, I was completely blindsided. I had no preconceived notions about you, Swan, but everything I learned about you on that first day completely captivated me from the start. I had only my dashing good looks and cunning wit to thwart whatever false impressions you had of me. I had to use my resources.”

“And your skills with a sword,” Emma added.

“A pirate has to have some tricks up his sleeve,” Killian teased with a growl. And in one inescapable motion, he turned his body pinning Emma under him and the arm that had been lightly caressing her side, and with gentle force began mercilessly tickling her in that one sensitive spot of vulnerability just above her hip. Emma wriggled and struggled against him, laughing and shrieking in conflicting agony and delight.

“Ok, ok, OK!” She managed to cry out, which was enough to stay the pirate’s hand. She put up both her hands in surrender. “I concede defeat. Looks like you win this round, pirate.”

He smiled down at her, drinking in the view of his swan below, and could not keep his mouth from hers. He kissed her with all the passion that he felt for her from that first day and every day since. _To the victor go the spoils._

**Author's Note:**

> I thought this would make an excellent pillow talk subject. I wanted this to be a text post, but I got carried away and it turned into a 1.7k word drabble. After seeing the image from “The Clinic” of Colin and another blonde in bed, this just seemed to fit. My first CS fic ever, so be gentle!


End file.
